Author Topic: Best graphics card for NWN? (Read 2967 times)

Legacy_Grymlorde · « **Reply #15 on:** July 13, 2016, 09:26:27 pm »

Just to be clear on a couple of things. I was asked how my 750ti worked with NwN. I was not asked about the card's size or footprint. As far as I know my msi geforce gtx 750ti twin frozr (to give its full name) is one of the narrower cards these days. I would say that single slot cards, except for those that are designed for low end use, are thin on the ground. Anyway here's a couple pics of my card. make up your own minds.

TR

@TR, I am grateful for the advice you gave. I take full responsibility for not confirming that the card would fit in my computer. My rant is against HP for a sloppy motherboard design. I have four unused slots and so it never occurred to me that the card wouldn't fit. Even if I had asked you about the no. of slots, I still would've bought the card and discovered that it didn't fit. Caveat emptor.

Legacy_Snottling · « **Reply #16 on:** July 14, 2016, 02:07:57 am »

I strongly recommend an Nvidia card, having seen many AMD users crash on my old PW in certain areas. I've been running the game with Nvidia cards since day one (June 2002) and I haven't had any trouble at all. Well, not until I got Windows 10.The game runs fine, but some textures are low res. I suspect DX 12 to be the culprit. *shrugs*

My current card is an EVGA GTX 960, but my old GTX 650TI ran the game just as well as the current card. No point in getting a powerful card just for the sake of NWN. One -could- of course optimize an old PC specifically for this wonderful game.

Legacy_Snowdog65 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 14, 2016, 04:34:31 am »

I strongly recommend an Nvidia card, having seen many AMD users crash on my old PW in certain areas. I've been running the game with Nvidia cards since day one (June 2002) and I haven't had any trouble at all. Well, not until I got Windows 10.The game runs fine, but some textures are low res. I suspect DX 12 to be the culprit. *shrugs*

My current card is an EVGA GTX 960, but my old GTX 650TI ran the game just as well as the current card. No point in getting a powerful card just for the sake of NWN. One -could- of course optimize an old PC specifically for this wonderful game.

The main AMD problem is ancient history. Shiny water. I used to run my old ATI Radeon 9700 Pro without issues.

There was a period where NVidia drivers made NWN almost unplayable. Cross your fingers that doesn't happen again.

I now run it on an old 8800 GT, at 1920x1200 with 4xAA at smooth framerates (anything above 30 fps is fine, this isn't a twitchy FPS).

Pick any AMD/NV card from the hierarchy, higher than an 8800GT and you will be fine:

http://www.tomshardw...archy,4388.html

Legacy_CaveGnome · « **Reply #18 on:** July 14, 2016, 02:20:50 pm »

I had Neverwinter installed with various graphic cards along the years. Nvidia MX300, FX5200, FX5600, GT6200, GT6600, 7800GTX, 750Ti and a few ATIs (wanted shiny water so Nvidia bias ;-). Old hardware still work well enough. One rig used a 7800GTX paired with an Athlon 4000, Win7 driving a 1980 X 1200 display with framerate always > 40 FPS. It pays to do driver archeology... Sometimes, old legacy drivers work much better.

Legacy_AndrueD · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2016, 02:50:44 pm »

I had Neverwinter installed with various graphic cards along the years. Nvidia MX300, FX5200, FX5600, GT6200, GT6600, 7800GTX, 750Ti and a few ATIs (wanted shiny water so Nvidia bias ;-). Old hardware still work well enough. One rig used a 7800GTX paired with an Athlon 4000, Win7 driving a 1980 X 1200 display with framerate always > 40 FPS. It pays to do driver archeology... Sometimes, old legacy drivers work much better.

Yah. It come down to driver. New ones dunna help with OpenGL very gud. Newest DirectX sumtime make problem too. I use old AMD very long and now nVidia. See no diffrence even with much better nVidia. But do not use many fancy tileset or shader so that can matter.

Sumthing else matter. Soundcard. Dunno how work together but integrate sound can make NWN run bad even with very gud Vcard.

Legacy_Snowdog65 · « **Reply #20 on:** July 14, 2016, 03:07:05 pm »

Yah. It come down to driver. New ones dunna help with OpenGL very gud. Newest DirectX sumtime make problem too. I use old AMD very long and now nVidia. See no diffrence even with much better nVidia. But do not use many fancy tileset or shader so that can matter.

Sumthing else matter. Soundcard. Dunno how work together but integrate sound can make NWN run bad even with very gud Vcard.

That is just painful to read. Might I suggest:

https://www.literacydirectory.org/

Legacy_Grymlorde · « **Reply #21 on:** July 19, 2016, 11:05:22 pm »

UPDATE: I just installed an EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 2GB GDDR5. This is the 730 with a 64-bit bus but faster processor & memory.

Good News: It fits! Just barely in my HP EliteDesk 800 G1 Tower. It has a larger fan than my EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 610 2GB DDR.

Bad News: I cannot tell any difference in NWN between the 610 and the 730.

Bottom line: The a new 730 costs the same as my 610 did when it was new. The 730 is the fastest NVIDIA card that fits in my computer. The frames per second rating while playing NWN can vary from over 100 (standing still) to around 3-4 (running with 3 henchman & a pack horse). Performance is the same regardless of whether high or low quality setting is selected. Most Bio tilesets perform well. The Sea Caves is flaky though. The Project Q tilesets and the Sigil Tilesets vary quite a bit. The visuals are quite nice with the high quality settings, so I recommend that since there is very little performance hit.

NB: If you can afford the dual-slot cards and if your computer has room, I recommend those instead.

Legacy_Snowdog65 · « **Reply #22 on:** July 21, 2016, 02:40:34 pm »

Bad News: I cannot tell any difference in NWN between the 610 and the 730.

Performance is the same regardless of whether high or low quality setting is selected. Most Bio tilesets perform well.

That sounds like the game is CPU/limited at that point. What do you have for a CPU?

I remember when I moved from an Athlon/Radeon 9700 pro, to Quad Core 2/8800GT, I was expecting a BIG performance increase and was not that impressed.

NWN really doesn't seem to be the most efficient piece of 3D coding.

Legacy_Grymlorde · « **Reply #23 on:** July 21, 2016, 09:46:29 pm »

That sounds like the game is CPU/limited at that point. What do you have for a CPU?

I remember when I moved from an Athlon/Radeon 9700 pro, to Quad Core 2/8800GT, I was expecting a BIG performance increase and was not that impressed.

NWN really doesn't seem to be the most efficient piece of 3D coding.

Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.40GHZ and 16GB RAM, both of which are a 7.8 (out of 7.9) on the Windows 7 experience index

Agreed. I get a more consistent experience with more modern games. I definitely think that quad core is a bottleneck. However, Tarot Redhand (see above) has a better card and a better experience. Which I why I recommend his card if your box has two full-length slots and the power supply to handle it. Otherwise, it looks like this card is the best single slot card out there for NWN.

Legacy_Gruftlord · « **Reply #24 on:** July 21, 2016, 09:56:58 pm »

               Did you follow the win7 setup guide in the tech help forum? It contains some tips related to issues encountered on multi core systems (which is basically all at this point)

Legacy_Grymlorde · « **Reply #25 on:** July 22, 2016, 05:42:55 am »

Did you follow the win7 setup guide in the tech help forum? It contains some tips related to issues encountered on multi core systems (which is basically all at this point)

Yes I did and I have already been following those tips before swapping out graphic cards.

Just for fun, I ran 'trace fps' and tested with and without 3 henchman. Having the three henchman exacerbated the problem areas significantly but had little to no effect in the other areas. I've also been tinkering with caching some scripts since it does help on single player mods. Unfortunately the script caching seems to have no difference.

But I don't want to derail this thread with the challenges of my installation. I think the general consensus of this thread is as follows:

1. Choose NVIDIA over ATI

2. Get the best NVIDIA card you can afford and have room in your computer for ($70 for a single slot, $140 dual slot).

3. Optimize your settings based on the info in the Tech Support Forum.

Legacy_Gruftlord · « **Reply #26 on:** July 22, 2016, 08:44:26 am »

               Then it's probably the tile sets or some high poly assets used in the modules you play. I'd doubt you get the same low FPS in the official campaigns.

Legacy_Gruftlord · « **Reply #27 on:** July 22, 2016, 08:46:07 am »

               *internet hiccup*

Legacy_Snowdog65 · « **Reply #28 on:** July 23, 2016, 01:26:08 pm »

Intel Core i7-4770 @ 3.40GHZ and 16GB RAM, both of which are a 7.8 (out of 7.9) on the Windows 7 experience index

Agreed. I get a more consistent experience with more modern games. I definitely think that quad core is a bottleneck. However, Tarot Redhand (see above) has a better card and a better experience. Which I why I recommend his card if your box has two full-length slots and the power supply to handle it. Otherwise, it looks like this card is the best single slot card out there for NWN.

Does he, or is he just less obsessed looking at the FPS counter?

I have an old Q9400 CPU and an old NVidia 8800 GT. Both worse than what you have.

I have a perfectly fine playing experience, even running with AA on.

But I don't turn on the FPS counter and seek out instances where it goes low.